Not a huge surprise here, but Sabean said that the Giants won't go after Yoenis Cespedes, tweets Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. "The price tag is probably beyond what his talent is," the GM said. The outfielder still has a number of suitors including the Marlins, Cubs, White Sox, Orioles, and Tigers.

Speaking of Torres, a competing baseball exec told Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter) that he sees the former Giant as a fifth outfielder, even though he is slated to start in center field for the Mets. Heyman agrees with that assertion.

No way Torres is a 4th or 5th outfielder…no way. He’s one of the best defenders in baseball. Outside of a poor offensive season last year (in which he hit in terrible lineup), he’s been more than able to hold his own as a hitter. Torres is one of the better CFs in MLB, not every year, but I think he still he has few great years left in him

Torres has a 19.9 career UZR/150, and had one good and one great (6.8 WAR in 2010) season before a down year where he was injured. As someone whose dealt successfully with my own ADHD in the past, Andres didn’t arrive late because of lack of talent.

Don’t get me wrong- the 2010 Andres Torres was quite possibly the most admirable player on the field in Texas, game 5 of the WS. But as much as we fans did admire THAT guy, he wasn’t that same player in 2011. His medical situation is very complex and may have wholly to do with his decline. But those familiar with his situation see the same problems continuing with the high level of pressure in a starting role. The Mets will likely find him more untenable than Pagan for entirely different reasons. I just sincerely hope Torres finds a role that doesn’t overstress him.

It is good to hear that there is a good chance that the Giants can resign Lincecum and Cain. They are 2 of the core players. The core players are Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Sandavol, Posey. We need position player pospects to pan out. Crawford, Belt, Pill.

Gary Brown is looking like the real deal. If he does extremely well in AA he’ll be a call up midseason if Pagan is terrible or we’ll see him in September for sure. Just worried about his walk rate. If he increases that he’ll have 50+ steals a season.

Directly from Bobby Evans VP Player Development: “Ideally Brown will stay in the minors the whole year including Sept.” From the last hot stove show on KNBR.

Brown would need to scorch the ball all the way from aa to aaa and then get called up in Sept based on Sabean’s judgement, the only one beyond Bochy and Evans who is slightly more inclined to see players sooner. IMO Brown has to have the goal in mind to make it in Sept, Evans doesn’t think so, Sabean likely does (he said last year it’s not impossible to see Brown as a Sept callup this year). But barring major injuries to Pagan and Cabrera we won’t see Brown in CF this year. They seem to ideally want him on the Posey track in 2013.

It is good to hear that there is a good chance that the Giants can resign Lincecum and Cain. They are 2 of the core players. The core players are Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Sandavol, Posey. We need position player pospects to pan out. Crawford, Belt, Pill.

The fact that Sabean viewed Ramirez as a toss-in tells me everything I need to know about him. As far as I’m concerned, Ramirez is the big pay-off in this deal and is the reason that rather than being a wash, this trade is a win for the Mets.

It remains to be seen whether Torres can hit solidly again from both sides of the plate which he needs to do to be effective. He’s also got issues with using a 36oz bat where he can get all the pull happy he wants from the left side and hit balls down the line, but then from the right side he goes back to the 34 and wants to slap the ball the other way. He really was better with the 36 all around which he did in 2010, but there were signs he wasn’t going to maintain that line drive up the middle approach from the right side. He’s got to find one approach or the other, pull or slap, a complicated strategy for a guy who has trouble concentrating without meds.